Twentysomethings Play Romantic, Sexy Games In Beijing

Call this film Sex and the City: The Lost Beijing Episodes. Fans of the HBO comedy might enjoy Restless, a self-indulgent romance set amid a group of twentysomethings in modern-day Beijing.

It's a little less smart and less overtly sexual, but it does have the same level of relationship angst.

Star Catherine Kellner even resembles Sex's Sarah Jessica Parker, impish and interminably cute, with flaxen locks that are straight instead of curly. Her character, Leah, is a wanderer, searching for love in all the wrong international cities: Prague, Tokyo and now Beijing.

Leah surrounds herself with similarly self-involved hipsters, some Chinese, some not. When we meet her, she's in the midst of discovering that her American boyfriend is playing her for a fool. She and her girlfriends embark on a plan of revenge gleaned from a Chinese board game strategy. She learns more about this Velvet Trap, as it's called, from a good-looking young chess master (Geng Le).

In a parallel story, Richard (David Wu) is a Chinese-American whose sole interests are surfing and goofing off. Then his family sends him to China, where he meets a very cute distant relative, Qing Qing (Chen Shiang-Chyi).

These young Americans are plenty immature, much more so than their Chinese counterparts, which makes for a number of embarrassing moments. All are on journeys of self-discovery that have to do with embracing your roots, your family, your past so that you can look to the future (and evaluate the present) with the proper perspective. But these simplistic story arcs are nearly identical, making the action redundant.

This freshman effort was written and directed by Jule Gilfillan, who seems unafraid to collapse into cliche at any moment. When Leah and Richard have bottomed out, each upset about their love lives, rain clouds suddenly open above Beijing to match their moods. And a suitably sullen tune plays in the background, set against scenes of their self-centered brooding.

The English-language Restless explores interesting new territory by setting all this youthful fidgeting against the formidable and age-worn city of Beijing. The film, too, is well-acted by a strong group of up-and-comers, including Kama Sutra's Sarita Choudhury. (Kellner also can be seen in Pearl Harbor.) If only the story offered as much freshness and promise.

Laura Kelly can be reached at 954-356-4889 or lkelly@sun-sentinel.com.